Re-framing the characteristics of concepts and their relation to learning and cognition in artificial agents

In this work, the problems of knowledge acquisition and information processing are explored in relation to the definitions of concepts and conceptual processing, and their implications for artificial agents.The discussion focuses on views of cognition as a dynamic property in which the world is actively represented in grounded mental states which only have meaning in the action context. Reasoning is understood as an emerging property consequence of actions-environment couplings achieved through experience, and concepts as situated and dynamic phenomena enabling behaviours.Re-framing the characteristics of concepts is considered crucial to overcoming settled beliefs and reinterpreting new understandings in artificial systems.The first part presents a review of concepts from cognitive sciences. Support is found for views on grounded and embodied cognition, describing concepts as dynamic, flexible, context-dependent, and distributedly coded.That is argued to contrast with many technical implementations assuming concepts as categories, whilst explains limitations when grounding amodal symbols, or in unifying learning, perception and reasoning.The characteristics of concepts are linked to methods of active inference, self-organization, and deep learning to address challenges posed and to reinterpret emerging techniques.In a second part, an architecture based on deep generative models is presented to illustrate arguments elaborated. It is evaluated in a navigation task, showing that sufficient representations are created regarding situated behaviours with no semantics imposed on data. Moreover, adequate behaviours are achieved through a dynamic integration of perception and action in a single representational domain and process.     

All in this together? Group representations and policy support

The present research explored the relationship between how Canadians perceived the quality of intergroup contact with Americans and their support for different antiterrorism policies, considering the potential mediating role of intergroup representations specified in the Common Ingroup Identity Model. Canadian students (n = 360) completed questionnaires that assessed their perceptions of the quality of intergroup contact with Americans, group representations, and reactions to various policies tied to the war against terror. Specifically, we tested a model of how perceptions of the quality of intergroup contact, along the dimensions specified by the Contact Hypothesis, predict different representations of the two groups (Canadians and Americans), and then how these different representations predict reactions to antiterrorist policies. Structural equation modeling analysis supported the predictions, revealing the pivotal role of group representations for policy views.     

Ethnicity, education, and the temporal stability of personality traits in the East Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area study

We examined the influence of age, gender, Black vs. White ethnicity, and education on five indices of personality stability and change across an average interval of 8 years in the East Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area study. In the full sample (n = 505, aged 30–88), examination of structural, rank-order, ipsative, and mean level stability, as well as indices of reliable change suggested that NEO-PI-R personality traits showed moderate to high levels of stability over time. There were few age and gender effects on temporal stability but rank-order, ipsative, and mean level stability were lower among Blacks and individuals with lower education. Future research should explore additional demographic predictors of temporal plasticity in a diverse range of samples, and employ observer ratings to assess personality.     

Parent Ratings of the Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms: Item Response Theory Analyses of Cross-National and Cross-Racial Invariance

Item response theory (IRT) based differential item functioning (DIF) was used to examine the construct and normative invariance of the DSM-IV oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms for ratings across Malaysian and Australian children, and Malaysian Malay and Malaysian Chinese children. To accomplish these goals, parents completed the Disruptive Behavior Rating Scale, which includes the eight DSM-IV ODD symptoms. Although the comparisons involving Malaysian and Australian children indicated DIF for five symptoms, only the symptom for “touchy” showed notable DIF. This was also the only symptom that showed DIF for the comparisons involving Malay and Chinese children. There were also minimal differences in the latent mean scores across Australian and Malaysian children and also Malay and Chinese children. These results indicate good support for the construct and normative invariance of the ODD symptoms for the samples compared.     

小学生和成人不同注意条件下的感数与计数加工的比较研究

采用经典的空间线索范式,以成年人和小学二、四、六年级的学生为研究对象,考察了内、外源注意对感数和计数加工过程的影响。结果表明：（1）六年级学生和成人的感数范围为1-3或4,计数范围为4或5以上,二、四年级学生的感数范围在1-3,计数范围在4以上,支持感数和计数分离的观点。（2）对感数加工,成人和六年级学生均不受两种注意条件的影响,而对计数加工,外源性注意条件下的反应比内源性注意快;二年级学生1-6的数量加工受两种注意条件的影响,四年级学生1-5的加工不受两种注意条件的影响。（3）成人和小学生在感数和计数加工上都存在线索效应。以上结果说明：二-四年级是发展的关键期,随着年龄的增加,儿童逐渐有意识地有效利用内源和外源性线索进行数量加工,其注意指向性更明确;从发展的角度为选择注意加工理论提供了发展证据。     

情绪唤起对执行功能的作用

执行功能是对基本认知加工进行有意心理控制的所有高级认知过程.最近10年,情绪唤起对执行功能的作用机制吸引愈来愈多的研究兴趣,其中,消极情绪(尤其焦虑、抑郁)已被普遍证实损害执行功能的运行效率;积极情绪如何作用执行功能尚不明确.鉴于后者研究中的理论假设匮乏,近年兴起的积极情绪的扩展建构理论以及动机维度模型,能为理解积极情绪如何作用执行功能提供线索与启发.未来研究应深入探讨不同动机强度的积极及消极情绪对执行功能的作用机制,在这之中也应细致区分情绪唤起与情绪刺激的不同效应.     

自陈量表式测验应用IRT的可行性

对采用5级评分Likert式测题的情感能力量表的分析表明,各分量表项目都有较好的模型-数据拟合性,而且显示了参数估计的不变性,及与CTT参数的关联性。这些都表明Likert量表应用IRT模型的假设条件得到了满足,即IRT应用是可行的。研究还表明IRT能对测量精度进行更精确的估计。     

“大五”人格模型及其在工业与组织心理学中的应用

“大五”是涵盖人格的5个因素的简称,它包括：神经质、外向性、开放性、宜人性和责任感。在介绍了该模型的基础上,文章重点介绍了它在工业与组织心理学中的应用,即“大五”可以有效的预测工作绩效、工作动机、领导行为、创造性行为和工作满意感等。     

受众卷入及其对广告传播效果的影响

卷入（involvement）概念在市场研究中得到了极为广泛的关注,特别是在广告心理领域更是备受重视。研究发现,卷入常常影响广告的传播效果,制约着广告自身特点、插播环境、受众主体特征等作用的发挥。同时,学者们围绕这一概念构建了卷入的四水平说、加工深度模型、精细加工可能性模型、FCB网格、Rossiter-Percy网格等诸多理论模型。文章对相关研究进行了较系统的考察,并提出了现有研究依然存在的一些问题,如生态效度偏低、研究方法单一、相关的自动加工研究不够等     

Conditional Covariance Theory and Detect for Polytomous Items

This paper extends the theory of conditional covariances to polytomous items. It has been proven that under some mild conditions, commonly assumed in the analysis of response data, the conditional covariance of two items, dichotomously or polytomously scored, given an appropriately chosen composite is positive if, and only if, the two items measure similar constructs besides the composite. The theory provides a theoretical foundation for dimensionality assessment procedures based on conditional covariances or correlations, such as DETECT and DIMTEST, so that the performance of these procedures is theoretically justified when applied to response data with polytomous items. Various estimators of conditional covariances are constructed, and special attention is paid to the case of complex sampling data, such as those from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). As such, the new version of DETECT can be applied to response data sets not only with polytomous items but also with missing values, either by design or at random. DETECT is then applied to analyze the dimensional structure of the 2002 NAEP reading samples of grades 4 and 8. The DETECT results show that the substantive test structure based on the purposes for reading is consistent with the statistical dimensional structure for either grade. This research was supported by the Educational Testing Service and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Grant R902F980001), US Department of Education. The opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Educational Testing Service. The author would like to thank Ting Lu, Paul Holland, Shelby Haberman, and Feng Yu for their comments and suggestions. Requests for reprints should be sent to Jinming Zhang, Educational Testing Service, MS 02-T, Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ 08541, USA. E-mail: jzhang@ets.org